Prayaas Farm

Just look at this healthy beautiful moth resting on one of the peaches harvested at the farm. Sights like this give us so much confidence in our journey at Prayaas. In conventional, chemically-treated orchards, these sensitive creatures are often the first to disappear. But in a regenerative system, we work with nature rather than against it—and in return, we’re gifted with these moments of joy.

A day late, but this felt like the perfect way to say Happy Mother’s Day to Mother Nature. Much love and gratitude! 🌱🙏

❤️

Growing vegetables at Prayaas always seemed like a daunting task! Since we manage this farm remotely, and visit only twice a month, we were not able to give vegetables the care and close management they demand - careful watering, soil prep and timely planting and harvesting.

This year, however, our farm gave us the signs to give vegetables a chance. Our soil is indeed looking much better, our smaller gardens and planting beds are well managed and we are getting better at timing the tasks involved.

We planted a few different varieties of tomatoes (the saplings were started at home and then transplanted at the farm). With a good dose of farm prepared compost and a nice layer of mulch, these plants are thriving. We’re a bit worried about the erratic weather patterns and the untimely rain and storms that won’t be ideal for these lovely tomato plants. But for now, we are enjoying the fruits of our labour.

We have had a bountiful season of winter greens at the farm. While bok choy and Chinese broccoli (G*i lan) are now flowering, lettuce is still going pretty good. I have tried to be super creative and come up with new ways to prepare lettuce salad… but I am finally running out of ideas!

We had planted the lettuce seeds in October last year right next to the veg garden fence which has the perennial Butterfly pea (Aparajita) growing all over it. Aparajita is from the legume family and it helped lettuce with the much-needed nitrogen as it dropped its leaves and shed nitrogen fixing root nodules in the soil over the winters. We also kept adding a good dose of farm-prepared compost to these beds.

Basically, we just took care of our soil and the rest happened on it its own :)